Most places that Condi Rice visits, you can't keep her hosts away from a chance to share her limelight. But then in this respect, as in so many others, China is not most places.

Alone of the six countries that Rice visited on her Asian tour, China failed to produce a senior government official for the customary joint news conference with the visiting U.S. diplomat. In India, Pakistan, Japan and South Korea, the foreign minister joined Rice at the mike. In Afghanistan, it was President Hamid Karzai — nattily attired as always — who showed up.

But in China, government leaders regard the press with all the affection of a contagious disease. So Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing found other things to do with his time. And Rice faced Chinese and foreign journalists by herself. Posted March 21 at 4:50 a.m. ET

Differing priorities. For Condi Rice, North Korea may top the agenda for her talks with China's leaders. But they have other things on their mind.

Monday's state-run China Daily newspaper bannered "Rice reaffirms US observes one-China policy" across its account of her visit. That's code for affirming that the U.S. doesn't support independence for Taiwan, which China's communist leadership regards as a renegade province.

China Daily also placed the North Korea nuclear crisis fourth in its list of the items to be discussed with Rice, behind Taiwan, trade disputes and concerns over China's rampant piracy of everything from DVDs to North Face jackets.

It's a reminder that, as Tip O'Neill famously said, all politics is local. Even 8,000 miles from home. Posted March 20 at 11:00 p.m.

Sunday school break. For a little while Sunday night, Condi Rice got a chance to leave behind the talking points and forget about the meetings. Instead, her gaze fell upon about a dozen little boys and girls singing and clapping in a Chinese Sunday school.

Rice, who calls herself "deeply religious," seemed energized by the children. The normally preternaturally disciplined diplomat smiled, waved her arms and sung along — as best she could given that the singing was in Chinese.

It turns out, however, that Jesus Loves Me sounds pretty much the same no matter where you are. Even if the words ("Shi Ye Su Ai Wo") are very different.

Next stop: Beijing. Rice is in Seoul for a few more hours, but already the focus is moving to her next stop: Beijing. Later today, she'll meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao for more talks on the simmering North Korean situation.

After the official sessions, she'll do something that would be routine almost anywhere other than China: attend mass. Rice, who described herself in Tokyo, as "deeply religious" will attend Palm Sunday services at a Protestant church not far from Tiananmen Square.

Cameras won't be allowed, so the irritation to the Chinese leadership — which severely restricts religious observances — will be minimized. But this personal action will pack a quiet political punch. And to some extent, it must be meant to. After all, there presumably are churches in Seoul where Rice could have celebrated mass. Posted March 19 at 9:21 p.m. ET

Command Post Tango. Before leaving Seoul, Rice insisted — one more time — that the U.S. has no plans to attack North Korea and believes diplomacy can solve the standoff over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.

But just in case it can't, later in the day she toured Command Post Tango, the top secret underground bunker where commanders would run a war with the North's 1.2 million man army. Rice became the highest-ranking U.S. official ever to visit the secretive site, south of Seoul. And to make sure everyone got the message, reporters — who've been kept away from far less sensitive venues — were allowed in for the first time in the facility's history.

"I know you face a close-in threat every day ... a state that is not democratic, is not free and does not have the best interests of its people at heart," she told officers of the joint U.S.-South Korean command.

As Rice was speaking, the English-language Korea Herald was warning that the U.S. is "heading toward a hard-line stance" on the nuclear issue.

Carved out of small mountain and reinforced with concrete shielding, the command center features a 20' high video display that officers call "the knowledge wall." In the event of conflict, the giant screen would display satellite photos of North Korean forces, maps and info on U.S. and South Korean troops.

Today, officers are in the midst of one of their twice-yearly exercises to practice for the second Korean War that everyone prays never occurs. So the view was more prosaic: the blue-and-white State Department seal. Posted March 19 at 6:16 a.m. ET

Rice speaks with students. The public highlight of Rice's less-than-24 hours in Tokyo was a talk before an audience of Japanese students at Sophia University. The speech itself was a fairly pedestrian affair, complete with the standard paeans to the U.S.-Japanese alliance and warnings over the North Korean nuclear threat. But Rice is far better fielding questions than she is at reading a prepared text, drawing appreciative laughter and applause at several points.

She also returned to a familiar theme, saying there was "no corner of the globe" that would escape the administration's global democracy push. Yet, practical realities make that campaign something less than immediately all-encompassing. Pakistan and China — to name just two countries on this trip — are hardly democratic exemplars. But the U.S. relies heavily on both for help with two of its toughest problems — Pakistan, in the war on terror, and China with the vexing North Koreans. Posted March 18 at 10:45 p.m. ET

China tops the agenda. Rice won't reach Beijing until Sunday afternoon local time. But talk of Asia's rising power is already overshadowing other topics. Flying to Japan Friday, she was peppered with questions about Washington's view of China's mushrooming prominence. No one asked about Japan or South Korea, the two U.S. allies she'll visit first.

China's economy is racing ahead, its military spending is jumping and its diplomats are increasingly center stage. The U.S. remains at odds with China over Taiwan, human rights and religious freedom, Rice acknowledged. But Washington realizes there's little sense bucking the obvious: the U.S. needs to accommodate China's growing clout. "We have no problem with a strong, confident, economically powerful China," she told reporters traveling with her.

Kyodo News via AP

Former sumo wrestler Konishiki welcomes Rice to Tokyo on Friday.

The Bush administration, however, remains irked by China's failure to lean on long-time ally North Korea to negotiate about its nuclear weapons programs. About the only friends North Korean leader Kim Jung-il has left in the world live in Beijing. And China provides desperately needed energy and commercial lifelines for his struggling regime, which Rice has memorably labeled an "outpost of tyranny."

So China should have plenty of leverage. But so far, there's no sign Chinese leaders have done much more than ask Pyongyang to return to the stalled six-party talks, which they host. Asked if the U.S. wants China to do something other than talk — such as cutting oil shipments or restricting trade — Rice demurred. "I'll leave to the Chinese what leverage they use or what mechanisms they use. But I do think it's important that the diplomacy the Chinese do with the North Koreans be effective," she said.

It hasn't been so far. Rice walked a fine line in her remarks, denying that Pyongyang's nuclear programs are the "central" issue for her northeast Asia swing while saying countries involved in the talks "need to intensify our efforts." Posted March 18 at 7:54 a.m. ET

Entering eye of political storm. There won't be much to say today, since Rice will be spending most of the day in the air, en route to Tokyo. The pace should pick up after that, though, because she's flying into continuing unease in northeast Asia over how to handle the North Korean nuclear threat.

The U.S. wants China to pressure Pyongyang to return to the stalled six-party talks. But the Chinese aren't eager to do Washington's bidding. Rice will be trying to find common ground with U.S. allies in Japan and South Korea over where to go from here. Posted March 17 at 8:26 p.m. ET

Talking to the troops. Making her first visit to Afghanistan, Rice had a chance to preach to the converted Thursday. About 100 mostly U.S. soldiers stood in the open air at the Kabul Compound as the secretary of state praised their work routing the Taliban and laying the seeds for Afghan democracy.

Recalling Sept. 11, 2001 — what she called "that horrible day" — Rice described the consternation of the Bush administration chieftains as they plotted the initial military retaliation. Meeting at Camp David five days after the twin towers' collapse, Bush's top aides "rolled out that map … and the color drained out of everyone's face" as they considered the challenge of waging war in Afghanistan, she said.

AP

Rice addresses U.S. troops in Kabul on her Asian tour.

Three years later, the Kabul landscape remains other-worldly with shattered buildings and pockmarked roads. But Afghanistan is a democracy, not a terrorist haven. And Rice credited the overwhelmingly U.S. coalition force with making it so.

Heads were nodding in response as the secretary spoke. U.S. Air Force Maj. Charles Havasy, 34, even teared up. The Glenville, N.Y., native abandoned plans to become an Air Force test pilot after 9/11 and instead ended up here. "I wanted to do something to help and show — that it stops here," he said. "Every time an American says 'thank you' it really touches me." Posted March 17 at 8:21 a.m. ET

Off to Kabul. Rice and her merry band are up at oh-dark-thirty to head back to the airport. The chief U.S. diplomat today is bound for Kabul to see how the U.S. effort to install a stable democracy is progressing.

The good news there, of course, is that the repressive Taliban are gone and people are free. The bad news is that too many Afghans are taking advantage of that freedom to grow opium. So much so that there are fears that once looked like a signal U.S. success in the war on terror may degenerate into a narco-state.

Last night, Rice had a three-hour dinner and confab with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. Among the topics: a possible sale of F-16s to reward Islamabad for its help in the war on terror.

She'll return to Islamabad after the Afghan stop for more meetings this evening. Posted March 16 at 9:04 p.m. ET

Rice in India. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice kicked off a six-day Asia swing Wednesday that will focus on two of Asia's rising economic powers and simmering concern over the nuclear plans of North Korea. At her first stop, Rice failed to budge the Indian government from its plans for a $4 billion gas pipeline with Iran. The U.S. wants to isolate Tehran, which it accuses of seeking nuclear weapons, not reward it. But the Indians' economy has ravenous energy needs, which trump other concerns.

Still, the overall U.S.-Indian relationship is strong. According to published reports, Washington is even preparing to sell both India and Pakistan advanced F-16 warplanes. No formal announcement of any sale is expected this week. India objects to any such sales to its historic enemy Pakistan. A cartoon accompanying a story in The Economic Times on the subject showed a megaphone-toting Indian shouting into the ear of a grimacing Rice.

Rice has plenty more on her plate: talks with Pakistan about the status of the war on terror and discussions with Seoul, Tokyo and Beijing on revitalizing the stalled six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program. Just one year ago, as the U.S. presidential election loomed, the Bush administration confronted voter unease about the "outsourcing" of U.S. jobs to low-wage India. But today, that was forgotten amid talk of expanding business links and the two countries' national pastimes. "I'll even try to understand cricket," she told Singh, prompting her Indian counterpart to reply: "And I'll try to understand baseball."